PR for People Monthly MARCH 2017 | Page 31

You and your friends pick out a restaurant you have never been to before and decide on a time. Your waiter hands you a menu with so many items on it, you feel overwhelmed. Wait, where are we in the world? India, China? Where do you start? You look at your group of friends and think, who picked this place out? Oh, yeah, that’s right, you did.

Here’s another example of a go-to restaurant, “No No,” akin to a dark episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen, with a menu that contains stylized perfect pictures of the food. Both scenarios do the establishment an injustice and in the process turns the consumer away from ever wanting to go there again. For some eateries, that is a good thing. For others, revamp and rethink why you are in business!

For me, as a dual-credentialed professional chef, before a restaurant or food establishment opens, they should have decided on their premise before-hand, meaning, just like a book, what it is all about summed-up into a simple sentence. Your menu should be the same, one sentence that states their entire establishment’s goals.

When In Doubt, Don’t Go Out.

by Chef Mary Beth Johnson, CEPC, CCC